


The Long Road I Have Tread

by Iravaid



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, Introspection, One Shot, The Last Agni Kai (Avatar)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:48:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25935442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iravaid/pseuds/Iravaid
Summary: Katara's perspective of The Last Agni KaiHer inner thoughts on Zuko and her own journey leading up to this very moment; where sister turns on brother, and dragons' fangs are bared at the height of Sozin's Comet.
Relationships: Katara & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 48





	The Long Road I Have Tread

Katara has been a witness to violence for as long as she can remember.

The cold sky letting out dry tears of soot and ash as the cloying smell of burning flesh sticks to her home for months afterwards.

The charred body of a moon spirit floating in its sacred pool as the sky goes black and Katara feels the ocean grow suddenly very still.

The humid air of an underground cavern, full of glittering, green crystals that would be beautiful if it were not the place The Avatar, her best friend, was almost murdered by the Fire Nation princess.

The wet feeling of her own father’s blood running between the cracks of her fingers as Katara desperately kept her own terror in check so she could focus on healing the fatal wound.

And now, the sky was a shroud of red cloud as a ball of celestial fury carved its way across the sky. Katara feels its foreboding energy press against her in a blazing wall of pure force. She’d figured the comet that was used to wipe out the Air Nomads would have some kind of presence, but its claustrophobic heat was almost unbearable.

She doesn’t know how Zuko can stand it. But maybe he feels like how she does during the night of a full moon. Katara remembers a day, lifetimes ago now, when an angry boy with a bright red scar had burst from unconsciousness with a sudden ferocity.

_You rise with the moon, I rise with the sun._ He had said, scowling, bruised and exhausted, before dragging Aang’s limp body out onto the tundra.

Katara wonders if the comet is an extension of Agni, and why Agni would be so cruel as to give his people such an incredible power.

As she and Zuko descend to the royal palace, a luxurious building with curved black tile roofs and golden statues that would be beautiful were it not the den of monsters, Katara remembers their plan. Go at Azula, two on one. It may not be honourable, but with the comet at its zenith and the world set to burn, there wasn’t _room_ for honour. 

At the steps of the palace, Azula kneels as the glittering sun of the Fire Lord’s crown descends upon her head. The sage stops when he catches sight of Appa, carrying the traitorous, banished prince.

There’s something off about Azula, but Katara refuses to take any chances with her. Azula has proven more than enough times that she’s always scheming, always picking apart her opponent for weaknesses to exploit. Underestimating her is off the table, Katara feels for the secure weight of her water bladder and tenses for the fight.

But then something else happens.

_The showdown that was always meant to be: Agni Kai!_

_You’re on._

Katara jerks her head to Zuko, who stares resolute at his sister, his enemy. He also feels that something's off about her. That she’s slipping. But where Zuko sees an advantage, all Katara can see is the glint of a concealed knife in those sharp dragon’s eyes.

On opposite sides of an enormous court, paved with large square slabs of stone, two siblings kneel. Their backs facing inwards. Katara wonders what this place was originally for, if it was here where Zuko learned how to firebend as a kid.

Katara stares at the crown of Zuko’s lowered head, hair now grown out from the phoenix tail he wore it in when they first met. It softens his scar, makes him look more like a teenager. When Katara had originally seen him at the Western Air Temple, she'd thought it some sort of manipulation tactic to get her and her friends to ease their guard. Thankfully, she'd been wrong in that regard. 

She wants to say something encouraging, but the press of Sozin’s Comet and the dark, curved roofs of the palace dig into her like the thorny claws of a tiger-falcon. So she stays quiet and lets Zuko prepare for the duel, hoping her presence is enough of a comfort.

They rise, Azula dragging her cloak off her shoulders, holding it high with one hand before letting it drop in a messy, dark pile by her feet. She smirks and looks across at Zuko.

_I’m sorry it has to end this way, brother._

_No you’re not._

His voice is quiet, almost resigned, when he says this. Both siblings had seemed to know that it would come to this. That even if things had been different, and Zuko was still the crown prince, they still would have ended up here, on the flat marble platform. Fighting for the throne. 

They enter into fighting stances, hands outstretched and ready. A grim stare of determination meeting the wild eyed look of a girl on the edge of her own mind. Azula twists and punches outwards, fire bursting from her knuckles. Zuko responds in kind.

Katara has seen firebending before, has come face to face with both Azula and Zuko’s blinding gouts of elemental fury. This was something completely different. The fire shrieks as it leaves their limbs, fuelled by the comet clawing its way across the sky.

Their fires, one blue and the other red, meet at the center of the platform and rise well above the buildings surrounding them. The duel continues, Azula sending rapid, furious jabs and kicks at her brother, blue flames hungry for something to burn.

Zuko remains planted, facing her head on without flinching. He punches outwards, keeping his elbows in close to his body. The blinding yellow of his element makes a strange hissing sound that rattles in the space in Katara’s mouth, making her feel on edge being so near this incredible display of power. But she trusts Zuko as much as she does her own bending to keep her safe from the flames.

The siblings’ fires clash, then burst forward. A wall of fire, twice the height of Zuko, rages past him. Katara sees him slide backwards from the sheer force of their stalemate before digging into the ground with his heel and standing firm.

If Toph were here, Katara doesn’t doubt she’d be cheering at Sparky for facing it like an earthbender.

Katara hopes Toph is okay. She squashes the sudden surge of worry that spears through her. What happens if any of them fail? She frowns and focuses on the blinding red and blue flames ahead, and not the images of her found family’s charred bodies amidst ash and ruin.

A trail of fire follows Azula as she leaps high into the air, kicking down and sending the blazing whip towards Zuko’s head. Without the flourish of his sister, Zuko brings up his own fire in a protective dome and banishes the attack before it can touch him.

The wall splits, revealing an unharmed Zuko. Flames gasp and die as they lose connection with their benders and the field falls dark once again. Katara hears some of the wooden beams above crackle as they burn from the onslaught.

The air is heavy with humid heat and Katara's brow prickles with beads of sweat.

Azula, panting so heavily that Katara can see it from across the other side of the courtyard, glares at the spot where instead of a pathetic soot stain being the only reminder of her pathetic brother, stands Zuko, poised and unbothered from Azula’s attempts to overpower him.

Katara knows it isn’t the power of the comet doing this; some of his forms resemble the Dancing Dragon moves him and Aang had learned from the original masters themselves. His fire is no longer the hot flashes of rage and fury that once consumed his life. Zuko is better now, grown from the angry boy on a decommissioned Fire Navy ship, chasing a hundred-year-old myth with the desperate hope of returning home.

Zuko takes the pause in Azula’s onslaught as the chance to send two enormous streams of coiling flames towards Azula. They charge to her like a pair of roaring dragons and the whites of Azula’s eyes are visible as she just barely dodges out of the way.

Katara smirks. Hadn’t been expecting that one, huh?

Katara watches as Azula catches herself, jets of blue flames propelling her at breakneck speeds towards a brother she thought inferior, but now is unnervingly unmoveable. A glimmer of hope breaks through the thick blanket of nerves and dreadful anticipation. Maybe Zuko was right. Maybe the wild eyed, golden stare of a caged tiger-falcon was a sign that Azula was not at the top of her game.

Azula circles Zuko in what seems like a near desperate attempt to break his root, to force him into moving. His time sparring with Toph and understanding her bending style affecting his own. And while fire is not as easy to repel and use against a fire bender like water bending, Katara still sees the edges of Azula's flames meld with Zuko's own as he disperses and blocks her attacks. 

In a move not unlike air bending, Zuko sends a ring of fire outwards, catching Azula by the ankles. She loses balance and slams into the ground with a sharp grunt. Katara winces as she rolls across the hard surface.

Azula’s hair is fully undone from the fighting, and as she rises, she stays hunched rather than tall and poised like Katara was so used to seeing from her. The roles are reversed now, with a terrified fourteen year old girl desperately clinging onto the superiority she once wielded.

_No lightning today, Azula? Afraid I’ll redirect it?_

_Oh, I’ll show you_ lightning _!_

With horrifyingly familiar movement, Azula carves into the sky and drags shrieking, blue cracks into fruition. They beg for violence and as Zuko finds his balance, preparing for the terrifying rush of redirecting the cold flame, Azula finds a new target. One who can’t beat her in this and make her look weak.

Katara sees a promise of pain and violence streak to her and finds she can’t move. She feels its angry fire across her face, the jagged white light piercing into her eyes.

It all happens in half a breath. Lightning leaves Azula’s sharp fingers, Zuko realises its true target, and does what he does best; jumps into action without thinking. 

_No!_

The lightning strikes.

Katara watches as the young man, once an enemy and now her friend, is held in lightning’s white, angry grip. It’s Ba Sing Se all over again. Only this time, Katara has no spirit water, no General Iroh to ensure a quick escape, no dad and a stolen Fire Navy ship to hide on. Zuko’s body hits the ground and a streak of lightning leaves his right hand, banished up into the thick clouds above. As he convulses in the ground, muscles violently contracting, the sharp tang of lightning and burning flesh snaps Katara out of her reverie.

_Zuko!_

War is no place for a fourteen year old girl to be. But still Katara finds herself there, time and time again. But is this war? A brother and a sister, warped by their father’s burning hands and venomous tongue, fighting each other for a throne? Children fighting monsters that look like people? A scared little girl, witness to violence time and time again?

But Katara is not a scared little girl anymore. She is a master water bender, the last of the Southern Water Tribe. She has fought masters thrice her age, Fire Nation soliders, the Dai Li, pirates, bounty hunters, and even a man who could make things explode with his _mind_. She survived the Fire Navy’s siege on the Northern Water Tribe, stopped the drilling of Ba Sing Se’s walls, and confronted her own mother’s murderer.

And now, she must defeat a dragon to save her friend.

_Hold on, Zuko. Just hold on._

**Author's Note:**

> this is just a little oneshot i've been thinking about writing for a bit now, hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
